"The Future Falls", the third of the Gale Women books, was my favourite so far, mainly because of the focus on Charlie starting to understand what she's really capable of and what this means for her future.
This is not an easy book to classify; this is Tanya Huff, trope twister extraordinaire, so I guess that's not surprising.
Still, how do you classify a book that is, on one level, about a Gale Girl Wild Power trying to save the world from an extinction event and on the other is tale of star-crossed lovers, where one of them is a witch who is already part of a polyamorous relationship and the other flips between being a Dragon and a teenage boy?
I guess, the answer is that you don't worry about classifying it, you just grab hold and enjoy the ride.
The whole story stands in the deeply disturbing shadow of the power and rituals of the Gale women. This book made it very clear that the priority of the Gale women is to protect the Gale family, even if this means treating family members as breeding stock or as power sources for their rituals, or letting the rest of the world's populations die.
Charlie refuse to stay in that shadow. She does what she thinks is right, regardless of the cost to her personally. Her bravery is one of the best aspects of the book. The next best thing about the book is the fast-witted humour, fed by pop culture references to sci fi movies and Canadian pop music.
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